12 Reasons Why Franklin D. Roosevelt Was One of the Worst Presidents in U.S. History

As Donald Trump wraps up his presidential term, it is hard for us to not reflect on the impact Trump has had on the United States, for better or worse. There are those Americans who think that Trump is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Others opine that he was the worst president ever. I actually heard that some from of my liberal friends, and I had to think to myself: "Is Trump really the worst president ever?" Sure, I have taken issue with his policies on trade and immigration since before he got into office. His brash, infantile behavior has chipped away at the integrity of the presidency. His actions since November to undermine the legitimacy of the election process, a move used by would-be autocrats, is all the more distasteful. At the same time, I have to ask if any other president could top that. Andrew Jackson had the Trail of Tears. Warren Harding was the most corrupt president with the Teapot Dome Scandal. Richard Nixon had Watergate. There is one other president who was pretty bad, and I think it is worth highlighting because a lot of people think he is so great. That man is Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or FDR for short. 

There are certain people who have nostalgia for FDR because people remember him as the man who pulled the nation out of the Great Depression. The image many have of FDR is him helping Americans get through the Great Depression with fireside chats and provided employment with public works projects. FDR was also the man who led the American people during World War II. He was seen as a man of the people, a uniter, especially by those on the Left. The fact that he was elected four times, more than any other president, was arguably a reflection of his popularity. The truth of the matter is that FDR was a wanker. I'm not going to be able to cover everything here, but if you need a list as to why he is a contemptible president, here you go:

1. FDR's economic policy turned what should have been a recession into a double-dip depression. FDR implemented a series of regulations (e.g., National Industrial Recovery Act, Anti-Chain Store Act) and increased taxes to high amounts (more on that below). If you listened to my fiscally liberal friends, more taxes and regulations should have ended beautifully. How did it go? For one, employment did not prosper under FDR's administration. Quite the opposite! According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment did not fall below 14 percent between 1931 and 1939 (see below). An econometric study from two economists from UCLA found that "real gross domestic product per adult, which was 39 percent below trend at the trough of the depression in 1933, remained 27 percent below trend in 1939." These same economists concluded that FDR's New Deal policies "reduced consumption and investment about 14 percent relative to their competitive balanced growth path levels (Cole and Ohanian, 2003)." To further the argument, a combination of federal debt reduction and the paring of New Deal programs contributed to the 1948 economic recovery (Higgs, 1997). In other words, FDR's policies slowed down the recovery. 

2. FDR's banking policy adversely impacted the finance sector. This is in reference to the Glass-Steagall Act, a bill FDR signed into law that prohibited commercial bankers from engaging in investment banking. For starters, Glass-Steagall did nothing to decrease the likelihood of banks failing during the Great Depression. The other issue, as is illustrated in a robust report from the Cato Institute on the myths behind Glass-Steagall, is that it ended up making banking more fragmented and expensive (also see Ramirez, 1999).

3. FDR's agricultural policy worsened the Great Depression. In 1933, FDR passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act [AAA]. The purpose of the AAA was to subsidize farmers to limit agricultural production in order to increase the prices of agricultural goods. Destroying tons of food is reprehensible, especially in a depression in which millions are starving. What were the economic effects of the AAA? Economists from Cambridge University (Fishback and Kachanovskaya, 2015) looked at the multiplier effects to find that they were, on average, between 0.40 and 0.96, which is economic speak for "it caused more economic harm than good." Another paper shows that the AAA had little or a somewhat negative effect on agricultural spending (Fishback et al., 2005). There is also econometric evidence showing that the AAA was responsible for the displacement of black and white sharecroppers, as well as black managing tenants (Depew et al., 2013).

4. FDR is responsible for Social Security. Social Security was created as a temporary relief system to make sure the elderly weren't dying in the streets during the Great Depression. It has since evolved into a source of supplementary retirement income. Aside from being a major driver of the federal budget, Social Security's return on investment (ROI) is mediocre in comparison to investing in stocks, bonds (either corporate or U.S. treasury), and/or real estate. The Tax Foundation compared tax-favored retirement plans to Social Security, and it's not even close (Entin, 2016). The Heritage Foundation makes a similar case (Dayaratna et al., 2018). Social Security does not allow for people to save for retirement as they see fit, even though there is evidence that private retirement investment is superior. Since the primary metric of Social Security is ROI, FDR inadvertently failed the American people, even well beyond his death.  

5. FDR's income tax reform is sadly still with us. As the American Institute for Economic Research points out, only 10 percent of earners paid the income tax in 1939. By 1946, that increased to 96 percent. This is one way of saying that "FDR forced the working class to pay the income tax to this very day." The personal exemption also dropped by half between 1939 and 1942 to contend with revenue strains. The aforementioned modifications, even if intended to be temporary, became more permanent fixtures in the U.S. tax code. FDR had also raised the top marginal tax rate to an astounding 94 percent in 1944. This sort of precedent has led certain Democratic politicians to think that a high marginal tax rate is a good idea, although there is enough evidence showing that high marginal tax rates would be a poor life choice. 

6. FDR was a power-mongering politician that eroded the balance of powers. In response to the fact that the Supreme Court ruled a number of his initiatives to be unconstitutional, FDR attempted to pack the courts to get his way. The silver lining here is that FDR failed in his attempt. As I pointed out in my September 2020 analysis, court-packing is a way that would-be or future autocrats use to concentrate power. Additionally, FDR moved the Bureau of the Budget (now the Office of Budget and Management [OBM]) under the executive branch (Executive Order 8248). A move to have greater power over the budget is significant since the Constitution grants budgetary powers to Congress. Speaking of Congress, FDR vetoed a large number of bills and set the precedent of using the executive order as a way to circumvent Congress when he didn't get his way. This illustrates further irony since the Democrats controlled Congress at the time, which shows how much FDR wanted to consolidate his own power. And let's not forget that the 22nd Amendment, the amendment creating term limits, was in response to FDR winning four elections. 

7. FDR had disdain for the freedom of press and limited it. For those who have criticized Trump's attitude towards "fake news," this should set off some alarm bells. FDR constantly complained about "poisonous propaganda." In his 1936 election, FDR bemoaned that 85 percent of the media were "out to get him." Going back to the previous point, FDR created the Federal Communications Commission [FCC] in 1934 to have better control of the media. As Reason Magazine illustrates, this gave FDR the ability to regulate content and intimidate broadcasters and newspaper publishers to not cover anything critical of the Roosevelt administration. 

8. FDR's collusion with Hugo Black almost led to a mass surveillance state. This brings me to the Black Commission, which was FDR's attempt at mass surveillance in the United States (read research from Cambridge here, as well as research from the Georgia State University here). Led by Senator Hugo Black (a move that FDR approved), who was a New Deal loyalist, this Committee initially was created to probe into opposition to the "death sentence" in the Public Utility Holding Company Bill, a bill that would have allowed for dissolution of public utility entities. This initial probe gave the administration the carte blanche to surveil thousands of telegrams to find those who were anti-New Deal and journalists who voiced their dissent. Thankfully, William Randolph Hearst fought back. This was not only good for freedom of press at the time, but it helped limit the McCarthy hearing in the 1950s. For those who think that Trump has been bad for freedom of press or freedom of speech, FDR was undoubtedly worse since his goal was to use the state to create an Orwellian society in which dissent was not tolerated. 

9. FDR's racist policy is exemplified by Japanese internment camps. In response to the Pearl Harbor attack, FDR detained 120,000 Japanese-American citizens and Japanese expatriates at internment camps, effectively stripping them of their civil liberties and deleteriously disrupting the economic way of life (Executive Order 9066).  

10. FDR failing the Jewish people highlights his inept refugee policy. Being Jewish, this one hits home for me. The MS St. Louis was an ocean liner carrying over 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. Instead of allowing them asylum, FDR denied them entry to the United States. They were sent back to face the horrors of the concentration camps. FDR did not increase the refugee limits, even though there was clearly a refugee crisis looming in Europe. FDR actually added requirements that made it more difficult for Jewish refugees to enter the country. Even more appalling is that FDR held prejudices against Jews (L.A. Times). His anti-Semitism resulted in the torpedoing of Jewish rescue efforts throughout the war (Medoff et al., 2006). For those who have taken issue with Trump's so-called "Muslim ban" and want a friendlier refugee policy, you shouldn't be happy with FDR if you are to remain consistent. 

11. FDR's indifference towards violence against African-Americans. While FDR expressed opposition to violence towards African-Americans, he ended up turning away a Republican-sponsored bill to make lynching a crime on the federal level. There is no significant evidence that FDR cared about lynching specifically or violence against African-Americans generally. This is significant considering that a) FDR is venerated on the Left, and b) one of the biggest activist issues on the Left is fighting violence against African-Americans. 

12. FDR deported thousands of Mexicans. From 1929 to 1936, the U.S. government repatriated thousands of Mexicans. Although this policy was a continuation of the Hoover administration, it should say a lot that FDR, a president venerated by a number of modern-day, pro-immigration liberals, continued said policy. The University of Arizona estimates that over 92 thousand Mexicans were deported during FDR's time in office (see below). Other estimates have the figures even higher. If you think past presidents such as Trump and Obama deporting people as morally problematic, so were FDR's actions.